of relay and crabby goodness

(above - debbie, diane sweeney, and me)

how fun is it to go to a relay for life fundraiser and be able to sit down and enjoy it? :)

last night, jonathan and i joined debbie and bruce at the friends for cancer cure crab feed at the centre at norpoint. we hadn't seen diane, the team captain, since our wedding...and it was a great night to catch up and see how other super fabulous relay teams do it.

what do i love about their team?
they've relayed since 1986 as a team - the very first year that relay for life was a team event. in that time, they've raised more than $350,000 for the american cancer society. they are a unique team in which the team members raise $2000 as a couple (or $1000 each) in order to be on the team. their fundraisers are very team focused - all the money goes in and is split evenly among the team members. they 'get it' - and while they're very humble about their success, they have inspired countless others in their quest. diane has taught me so much about being a great team captain, and i treasure her friendship so much.

they did a beautiful mini-luminaria ceremony, where they passed out luminaria bags and asked each person their to create their own. diane sang "amazing grace" -- and she rocked it. back in the day, she used to open every relay for life in tacoma with the national anthem - she's just that good.



they had all their old team tees hanging up - and this was one that you don't see often...the early logo when the relay for life was called the 'city of destiny 24 relay against cancer'. notice the tacoma dome in the logo? :)



to show the progress of the relay...

• the first logo in black and white
• when the american cancer society adopted the event as their signature event, the new logo came about...showing the sun and the moon (to keep with the 24 hour theme) and added the words "team event".
• in 1993, the new (and current) logo was developed - focusing on the signature purple color for relay, keeping a modified version of the sun and moon, and utilizing the american cancer society's logo within it. a number of international relays use a very similar style now.

as the american cancer society updated their logo, the canadian cancer society did as well...i love how it turned out!


a few more internationally...
australia, new zealand, the united kingdom, and france


And last year's stylized logo...with this year's on the right...


it's amazing to see how far it's come since the relay's humble beginnings in tacoma at ups, isn't it?

and to think diane's team has relayed each year that it's grown.

good stuff, indeed.